<p>Quad core processors give you bad battery life because they don’t have integrated graphics.</p>
<p>What’s wrong with the Sony Vaio Z? You can get an i7 dual core on it, it has the same GPU as the 15 and 17" MBP, and it’s smaller and more portable and has up to 11 hours battery life which is more than a 15 or 17" MBP. The only downside is the $2-3k price because Sony decides to put dual SSDs in RAID 0 in it but obviously that’s not a problem for the OP.</p>